


Never Tear Us Apart

by mltrefry



Series: Run With You [8]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode AU: s09e12-13 Hell Bent/Heaven Sent, Episode Rewrite: s09e12 Hell Bent, F/M, Run With You series, character death but he doesn't die, character death but she doesn't die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25267243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mltrefry/pseuds/mltrefry
Summary: The Time Lords know their fate is in the Doctor's hands. They know he's the one to end the Time War, the one that lets Gallifrey burn. The problem is, they're not entirely sure how. They think its with the Hybrid, the legendary creature that was once thought to be half Dalek, half Time Lord. They're pretty sure the Hybrid is the woman who married the Doctor. But a bond with a non-Gallifreyan can be easily severed, and someone who can't regenerate is easily destroy. Or, at least that's what they thought...
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Run With You [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/490927
Comments: 49
Kudos: 142





	1. Heaven Sent

The Doctor coughed, gasping for air, trying to make sense of what had happened. 

He’d been standing in the graveyard with Rose and Missy, the latter having put a band on his arm, one matching Rose’s. He knew what it was. He knew where it would send him. Or, at least, he thought. The Doctor had been certain it would send him back to Gallifrey, throwing him into the Time Lock and into the middle of the war he’d long put behind him.

He had thought he would find Rose at his side in front of a tribunal of Time Lords.

Instead, he found himself inside a glass, tube-like chamber. Beyond the casing, an ancient-looking room that had antique-looking furniture as well as advanced more modern technology. 

Rose was nowhere to be seen.

Pushing at the panel in front of him, the glass door gave way and the Doctor stepped outside. The screen on the wall was showing static, the control panel nearby merely showing that someone had arrived, and appeared to not have a way to reverse the transmat. On the floor near the lever that would allow the import was a pile of ash. 

Frowning, he bent down, scooping it up, letting it fall through his fingers. As he watched it sift back down to the floor, he opened his bond, opened it wide, hoping to feel Rose nearby.

There was a connection, thin, barely-there, not even really enough to send a thought through unless he pushed really hard. It could have even been that she had died, and was in that awful space between one breath and the next when she hadn’t quite bounced back. Hopefully, she was somewhere in the building, and he could find her, but somehow he doubted it. 

Missy had said something before they were transported, about an old legend he’d heard as a child, and again during the war. The Doctor didn’t hold out much hope that his wife was nearby, especially if the Time Lords knew about her, and especially if they assumed she was this being of legend.

He did, however, have a hunch that the Time Lords could hear him, were watching him. 

“If you think because she’s not with me that I am weak, then you understand very little. I was and am the Doctor of War, the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Gallifrey. And Rose Tyler is the reason I became better, became a good man.” He stepped toward the door. “I’ve a feeling you’re going to try and hurt her, break her, destroy her. I’ve a feeling you think keeping me here will allow you to do that. Well, I’ve got news for you. I’m the Doctor, I’m going to find you, find her, and I will never, ever stop.” 

He looked around at the room once more, taking it in quickly before opening the door and stepping out into the window-lined corridor. Going to one window, he first looked down, seeing how high up he was, that wherever he was was surrounded by water so dark he couldn’t see the bottom. He looked up at the dark clouds overhead, but the spot of sun was in relatively the same position as it was when he left Earth. 

He didn’t think this was Earth, but he thought that maybe it was someplace similar.

“The equipment in that room is consistent with an augmented, ultra-long-range teleport. So, I’m not a single light-year from where I was, but that means nothing. I could also be on the other side of the Universe, depending on if I was moved somewhere else first and don’t remember. But this is what I can tell you when the sun sets, I’ll be able to establish an exact position by the stars.” He moved further down the corridor. “I’m not alone. There would have been no way to send me here without having someone on this end pushing the buttons, pulling the levers. So come on, chop chop, the Doctor will see you now. Show me where you are.”

~DW~

Rose had no idea how long she was in the room if that’s what it was. The chamber, she supposed, or the prison cell. 

She’d felt that strange, searing agony at least a dozen or so times, but she wasn’t sure if it was minutes, hours, or days apart. Her heart never started beating, she never needed to take a breath. Rose never got hungry, or tired, or thirsty. The washroom was pointless except to shower, and she hadn’t felt up to that just yet.

She spent most of her time sitting in her chair, looking through the light barrier, waiting for something to happen. And as she sat and stared, she had her bond open wide, searching for a sign from her husband, and sending what she could of her love and support to him in hopes he would feel it. 

She thought she heard whispers, echoes, phrases said. And at times, she thought she heard him start to tell the story of a bird, but he never finished before she would damn near fall out of the chair, wanting to die and not being able to.

~DW~

“Imagine life as a door,” The Doctor whispered to the double doors he was pressed against, hands touching the wood, eyes closed. “People keep pushing past you. All of that knocking, but it’s never for you. And you get locked up every night, so if you’re just a little bit nice….” The double doors, previously locked, hindering his escape from the creature slowly stalking him through the halls of this fortress, clicked open for him. 

Beaming, the Doctor got to his feet.

“See, Rose? I can be nice when I….” He trailed off as he opened the doors to reveal a solid brick wall on the other side. A trap.

His hearts began to pound, as he faced that terrible creature, slowly stalking toward him. 

“I can’t actually see a way out of this,” He confessed to himself, as much as he confessed to the creature and his wife who was too far away to properly feel. “I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry. I’ve finally run out of corridor.” He took a shaky breath, swallowing. “I don’t know how you do it. Time and again, Rose, I don’t understand how you face this so bravely, even knowing you’ll come back from it. Something I never really told you: I’m scared of dying.”

As he said the words, the creature, and all the flies buzzing around him stopped.

The Doctor stared at it, trying to see why it stopped moving. 

“Something I said,” He asked as he flicked a fly, hearing it hit the wall but not come back to life. “What did I say, why did you stop?”

The building began to rumble, and the Doctor looked up and around before peering out the nearby window.

The whole thing had begun to shift, turning like a clock.

 _Like a dial_ , a voice that sounded suspiciously like a mix of Rose and Missy said in his mind, but the Doctor didn’t dwell. As soon as the wall behind him was gone, he darted into the next room.

A bedroom. He glanced over his shoulder and seeing the creature wasn’t moving still, though he didn’t know for how much longer. The screen in the room was showing static again. A good sign since as soon as he noted the creature before, he could see himself on it.

As the building stopped shifting, the Doctor went to the bed and plopped down on it. The sheets were relatively clean, and the frame or mattress made an awful creak. It didn’t tell him a terrible amount about the gravity where he was. He looked to the window, spotting the vase of lilies, and hated just a little that they were pink. Pink, with the yellow bedding, undertoned with blue….

As he plucked one of the stems from the vase, taking in the lovely scent of it, he turned to the portrait above the mantel.

Rose. Her age wasn’t determinable, but he would guess it was from after the Bad Wolf had activated in her. She had never been old, would never be old, but there was a hardened bit of her after the Year That Never Was that came through in her eyes. 

He moved closer to the portrait, a sad sort of smile as he looked into those beloved brown eyes, taking in that slight curl to her lips. His hearts swelled, and if there was any chance she could feel it over their bond, he pushed it through to her. 

But after the initial wistfulness had come and gone, the Doctor realized there was something about the portrait he should have noted immediately. He shifted the lilies from one hand to the other, patting himself down for something to examine the portrait when he noticed the watchmaker-style loupe sitting just beside the gold frame.

He put it to his eye, squinting to hold it in place, and then leaned in.

The paint was dust-coated, cracked, starting to flake off the canvas.

“Old. Very old,” He said to himself as he leaned back. “Possibly very, very old.”

He could hear the flies and knew time, for now, was running out.

~DW~

Every once in a while, though Rose couldn’t tell you how long these whiles stretched, she got the sense that the Doctor was about to do something completely stupid. Water was involved a good chunk of the time, and she thought she would see flashes over the console room in her mind, but she could never be sure.

She blinked, then looked down at her arm and frowned. 

There was a layer of dust building on her arm, her hand. Probably her hair as well. She should shower. No telling how long she sat there if she was literally collecting dust, but she reckoned it was well past the three-day limit she would set for herself in particularly lazy decades.

~DW~

“Sorry I’m late!” The Doctor said as he flung open the TARDIS doors in the recesses of his mind. “Jumped out of a window, certain death.” He moved to the console, pretending that pressing the buttons and turning the knobs would make a difference. “Don’t you want to know how I survived? Go on, ask me.” 

“Did you really have to jump out the window?” Rose’s voice asked, but he didn’t want to turn and not see her there, so the Doctor didn’t look.

“Of course I had to jump.” He replied as he darted around the console. “The first rule of being interrogated is that you are the only irreplaceable person in the torture chamber. The room is yours, so work it. If they’re going to threaten you with death, show them who’s boss: die faster! You’ve seen me do that more often than most.”

“Unfortunately,” Rose’s voice was nearer than he expected, and he turned, seeing her sitting on the stairs nearest to him, smiling.

There was something different about her, though. She might have been a simple presence in his mind or a thin connection from their bond, but there was still something off about her that he couldn’t pinpoint.

“Do you know what I’m doing right now?” He asked her. Rose shook her head. “I’m slowing down. I’m assuming I’m going to survive. Rule one of dying is don’t. Rule two is slow down, go to the storeroom in your mind, lock the door, and think. That’s what I’m doing now. This is my storeroom, and I’m here showing off, telling you how I escaped, making you roll your eyes and smirk, trying not to laugh until I embellish a part of the tale that you can’t help but giggle at.” He moved toward her and Rose stood, shifting to lean against the rail as he looked down at her. “I’m falling, Rose. I’m doing, and I’m going to explain to you how I survived.”

“Well tell me then,” She said, and he could almost feel her touch on his hand. “How are you gonna survive this?”

The console in his mind began to light up, the monitor displaying a schematic of the castle. He turned back to it and began to type on it.

“Salt! I thought I smelled it earlier. When I broke the window, I was sure. Salty air. The castle is standing in the sea.” He began.

“We both know, from my own experiences, falling into water doesn’t mean you’ll live.” Rose reminded him.

“No, it’s why I threw the stool, though. I needed to know exactly how far I’m going to fall and how fast.” He said as the lights of the TARDIS began to blink, and the room began to shake. He continued to type unnecessarily, and Rose remained at his side, watching him stoically. “Fall time to impact, seven seconds. The wind resistance of the stool, the atmospheric density, the strength of the local gravity, I should hit the water in about… 0.02 seconds. The chances of remaining conscious….”

It went dark and cold. Quiet. Then slowly, the TARDIS began to power up again. He was still standing at the console, but now he was sure he felt Rose’s arms around him, her chin on his shoulder.

She said his name, his proper name, and asked, “Where are you?”

He leaned his head back. “Can’t I just sleep?” He asked tiredly.

“Not yet,” Rose replied. “You also need to figure out what made the creature stop.”

“Must I?” He asked, turning his head, pressing his forehead to her cheek, missing the warmth that would have been there if she weren’t just a part of his mind.

“Yes,” She said softly. “Because you need to stop it, get out of this place, and come find me.” He looked at her, at her face. It’s how he knew the voice he heard then was an echo of a very long time ago, one he had responded to even as he was deep in recovery from a regeneration gone slightly wrong.

“ _Help Me._ ”

~DW~

When Rose stepped out of the shower, she was startled to see a somewhat-short, bald man squinting at her. 

Being as old as she was, and having experienced a multitude of cultures, being naked in front of a stranger wasn’t really something that bothered her. What did bother her was the fact he continued to squint with a grin she had seen on many co-workers back in the days of Henricks.

“Umm,” She said as she reached for a towel. “Hello?”

“Hello.” He said cheerfully.

When he added nothing else, she asked, “Is there a reason you’re in the loo with me? You some sort of guard, or something?”

The man blinked. “I am, actually.”

“Right.” She nodded. “Well, I’m Rose.” She introduced herself. “And you?”

“I’m Nardole, ma’am.” He replied, offering his hand for her to shake.

Amused, Rose reached out and took it, shaking his hand, feeling a prick on her palm.

“Sorry,” Nardole, said immediately. “Sorry, they made me do it.”

“Do what?” Rose asked, looking down at her palm, not seeing anything but feeling where the prick had been.

Nardole raised his hand, showing her his palm, and the small needle retracting into his skin.

Rose tilted her head. “Are you an android, Nardole?”

He frowned. “And what if I am? You’re a human.” He curled his lip in disgust, and Rose couldn’t help snorting at it.

“Wasn’t meant as anything,” She told him. “Just sorta asking, yeah? Now, what did they make you do?” Rose asked, glancing at his palm, then waving her hand.

Nardole lowered his hand, looking a bit sheepish.

“Poison you.” He admitted.

“Right, they’re trying to kill me then.” She frowned. “Not doing a great job of it, are they?” She then felt that searing agony again and clutched at the counter. 

Nardole’s hands were on her arms, and she could hear him murmuring reassuringly, that it was alright, it would be over soon, that he was sorry. But then it stopped, and Rose righted herself.

“Ugh,” She said, rubbing at her face. “Want to know why that’s happening.”

Nardole’s eyes widened, and he blinked at her. “You, you’re-?”

“Yeah, hazard that is. Being alive all the time.” She said, looking down and recalling she was only wearing a towel. “Right, could I get a bit of privacy, please? Just, you know, room’s not that big, and I wanna change.”

Nardole blinked. “I’ll get you some fresh clothes.” He said, turning and leaving the washroom.

Rose was about to call after him, tell him she had clothes, but realized a bit too late that the pink t-shirt and the well-loved denims she’d been wearing weren’t in the room anymore. Nor were her underthings or her trainers, which was a shame because she’d had that particular pair for nearly two hundred years and they were doing well with the occasional sonic repair. It would take forever to find another pair like them, and have them broken in as well as that pair had been.

She closed the lid of the toilet and sat down, focusing on her bond with the Doctor getting a hint of love from him. Echoes were the only thing she could hear, and she sighed, wanting to be at his side, face whatever he was facing with him.

Nardole returned, waddling in with a bundle of red and gold fabrics.

“Here you are, ma’am.” He said cheerfully. “Must admit, the higher-ups weren’t too pleased to hear you still going, but there were a couple who found it all quite amusing.” He patted the bundle before handing it off to Rose. Then, he turned and waddled back out. 

~DW~

Changed into dry clothes that somehow looked exactly like the ones he was already wearing, the Doctor had ventured deeper into the castle, making his way to a storeroom. In the center of the room was an octagon, with arrows drawn in the chalk pointing to it. Sand, or maybe more ash, was in the middle of it, and after seeing all the skulls at the bottom of the mot, the Doctor wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to determine what was in the octagon.

Still, he bent down to examine it, and as he did, he noticed the screens were showing a corridor again, inching closer to him.

“It keeps coming, love. Wherever I go, it follows. Why?”

“ _You know why.”_ Rose’s voice said in his mind, and for a brief moment, he thought she’d actually heard him. But it wasn’t her, not really, just that part of his mind that sounded like her. 

“Wherever I go, it’s tracking me. Slowly, though. Scary lurching,” he thought it through, standing up. “Scary,” He said, looking at the screen, seeing the thing shift ever closer. “These screens everywhere, it’s showing me exactly where it is at all time, how far it's going, how near.”

He turned, seeing the gears and cogs behind a yellow-tinted glass, and remembered seeing them in all the other rooms he’d been in. “I’m in a fully automated haunted house, a mechanical maze.” He turned when pots above clattered, but saw nothing. “It’s a killer puzzle box designed to scare me to death, and I’m trapped inside it.” He grinned. “Must be Christmas.”

 _“You would like that.”_ Rose teased in his mind.

“Of course I do. I mean, it’s all a working hypothesis, but why else would you not be here?”

A door creaked open of its own accord, and a quick glance at the screen showed the Doctor that the creature wasn’t near enough for it to have been the one to cause it,

Slowly, he left the storeroom, off to see what else there was to discover.

The corridor led him out to a garden, old, not terribly well cared for yet not gone to seed. There was stone, of course, mimicking the storeroom in that the slates pointed somewhat toward the middle. Except, instead of an octagon filled with sandy ash, there was a very grave-like patch. The dirt was dark, like it was fresh, though, given the overcast state of the weather, it could very simply be moist from the air. On the opposite wall, propped just beneath the window, and in view of a screen that showed the creature’s progress, was a dirt-caked spade.

“Someone wants me to dig,” He said as he went to it, picking it up, looking it over. “What do you think, Rose? Is someone trying to give me a hint? What would you do?”

“ _Get you to start digging._ ” Came the cheeky thought.

He smirked, brushing the dirt off the blade.

“But if I weren’t around to do the dirty work?”

_“I’d dig. Second spade you’ve seen since getting here? Someone wants you to.”_

“Could be a trick,” The Doctor reasoned. “Could be one of my predecessors.” 

_“It could be.”_ The voice of Rose agreed. “ _’Specially given all those skulls.”_

The Doctor gave the spade in his hand a little spin, then looked at the screen. “Building this height, creature that slow, so… what?” He ran the calculations. “An hour.”

He began to dig.

~DW~

Rose sat in her chair as though it were a throne. She shifted it to face what she thought was the front of her cell, as it’s where the shadows lingered.

“I’m starting to get a sense when you slow down time,” She said when said shadows were lingering. “Goes by a lot faster in here, yeah? Can’t feel it at all, but then, ‘m over a thousand years old and lived on a TARDIS at least a thousand of them. Time is relative.” She narrowed her eyes when she realized they weren’t moving. “Like the dress, by the way.” She said shifting the skirt of it, her sandal-covered foot now peaking out of the slit that went part way up each side. It was long, much fancier than she would wear on a normal occasion, but not ostentatious. It was also quite modest, with long sleeves that were loose about her arms except at the cuff, and the neckline covered her collarbone. The gold she’d seen was actually on the inner lining. “I haven’t worn red since my wedding day.”

The shadows blurred away, but Rose remained, sitting, watching, waiting.

And, admittedly, was a bit more conscious of the dust.

She had a few more episodes of the agony, but after a time, she lost count. After those moments she would get up, prowl around the cell. Once she contemplated trying to sleep, but since she didn’t feel tired, she wasn’t sure she could.

What might have been a half-hour or thirty years, Nardole returned. 

He came through a corner, but there was no visible entry point. He simply seemed to step through the corner and into her cell.

“What are they making you do this time?” She asked. 

“I have to stab you,” Nardole said apologetically.

“Anywhere in particular?” Rose asked.

“Brain stem,” He replied, and she nodded once. 

“Least it won’t ruin the dress.” She said, pulling her hair over her shoulder and getting down on her knees. She shifted, turning her back to the front of the cell. She watched Nardole waddle around her, producing a beautiful blade from one of his pockets. “I get something fancy, do I?”

“It’s meant to be ceremonial I think,” Nardole explained casually. “You ready?”

Rose nodded, closing her eyes, bracing herself.

It was different than the other times. She felt it, it hurt, but because she wasn’t breathing anyway, it didn’t take her breath away. Because her heart wasn’t beating, there was no blood to pump. When Nardole withdrew the blade, she could feel her skin knitting back together like pins and needles, something she would normally be blacked out for.

After she reasoned she was healed enough, she got to her feet, Nardole making a frightened sound as she did.

She turned to him, seeing his eyes wide, his gaze darting from the bloodied blade to her.

Rose smiled as she dropped her hair. “You alright?” She asked, her voice hoarse.

Nardole didn’t say anything, but his focus fell on Rose and stayed there. 

“Nardole, why are the Time Lords sending you in here? I know it’s them, not hard to figure out. The writing in the washroom, what the Master told the Doctor and me before they sent me here. But I must ask, why are they sending you in here to do their work for them?”

“I… well it’s just….” He swallowed, which Rose knew was merely an involuntary reaction, something programmed in him to make him seem more normal, but it was oddly endearing.

She leaned in toward him, and in a stage whisper asked, “Are the Time Lords afraid of the big Bad Wolf?”

Nardole switched quickly to confusion. “I don’t know who that is, but they’re certainly afraid of you, being the Hybrid and all.”

Rose frowned. “’M not the Hybrid.” She said more quietly this time. 

Nardole frowned. “Makes no sense. You must be.”

Rose pursed her lips, then nodded once. “If I must.” She said as she returned to her chair, resuming her position, appearing as regal as she possibly could for whoever was watching on the other side of the wall. 

“Poisoned. Stabbed. That time, practically beheaded. Know that knife went all the way through. I’ve no doubt you turned the oxygen off in here at some point, and you’ve not attempted to feed me or give me water. You could try and blow me up, but that’s just gonna ruin the lovely dress you loaned me. So what will be next, I wonder?”

The shadows blurred again, and Rose leaned her head back.

_“Where are you, my Doctor? Why can’t I feel you? Why aren’t you here?”_

She hadn’t expected to feel anything in return, the bond still so stretched out. Therefore, she was floored when she felt an inquisitive spark at the edge of her mind for a quick moment.

~DW~

“Well, that was another close one,” The Doctor said as he burst back inside his mental TARDIS console room, avoiding thinking directly about how the creature was looming over him in what might as well be his own, hand-dug grave. “Or, it will have been once I’ve gone and got myself out of it.”

“And how are ya gonna do that?” Rose asked, appearing from the other side of the rotor.

“I’m going to tell the truth.” He replied, rolling his r a little.

“What truth, my Doctor?” Rose asked. 

“Truths I’ve never told before.” He replied, taking in the mental image of his wife, reaching out to take her hand. “Truths I’ve never told anyone, not even you.”

“Knew you were afraid of dying.” She replied, shaking her head slightly.

“No, you didn’t.” He said gently, taking her hand and bringing to his lips for a kiss. “You knew I was afraid of change. But I’ve already changed 11 times. You’ve met my 13th, my last. I’m afraid of change, yes. But I’m more afraid of what happens when I don’t have another change to come.”

Rose sighed, cupping his cheek, running her thumb along his cheek. It was all in his mind, of course, none of it was real. But thousands of years with the knowledge of her touch made it so he could feel it clearly as if she were really right there. 

“I’ll never begrudge you your secrets.” She promised. “We share a bond, share so much, but everyone needs a secret here and there.”

“Your secret is how many of me you’ve stolen a snog or four from.” He grinned, knowing Rose really would have that mischievous spark in her eyes to go with that tongue-touched grin of hers. 

“Might be,” She acknowledged before sobering. “’M not really here, though. So you can tell the truth as though you were telling me.”

He nodded. “I confess….”

~*~

“It’s funny,” he paced around that same mental console room later, Rose perched in his chair on the Mezzanine level, listening. “The day you lose someone isn’t the worst. At least you’ve got something to do. It’s all the days they stay lost.”

“My not lost,” Rose said. “You still feel me.”

“It’s the only reason I know you aren’t dead.” He retorted without looking at her. “But how long are you going to stay that way?”

“’Til you die.” She countered, and he stopped, looking at her over his shoulder.

“57 minutes.” He said. At her quirk of the eyebrow, he added, “This is how my world works, love. My life is a countdown. I draw the creature to one extreme of the castle, and I run to the other extreme. I can earn myself a maximum of 82 minutes. To eat, sleep, and work.” 

“And talk to me,” Rose added.

“Yes,” he acknowledged, “But I haven’t decided if this is my dreaming, or thinking things through.” 

“What’s your work, then?” She smiled.

“Finding room 12.” He replied, turning to face her, leaning back on the console.

“Bit on the nose, that.” She frowned.

“Well, the castle wants me to find it. Numbering is a bit confused as if the rooms are all jumbled up. They move around, I think. I saw the whole castle move when I made the creature stop.”

“You could mark the doors.”

“I can’t. Every room reverts to its original condition, like automated room service. Flowers are replaced, tools put back, messes cleaned. I think this whole place is inside a closed energy loop, constantly recycling.” 

“Everyday like the one before,” Rose murmured.

“Yes,” He said. “Only without you, which makes me wonder if this is hell.” 

“I’m here now.”

“Not really. You’re what I think up when it gets to be too much. When I worry I’ll be here forever. When I am certain the answer is just beyond my grasp, but the creature causes me to lose sight of it. When I’m not certain that this running about will ever stop. That I’m missing something, and it’s something terrible.”

“You know it’s a trap though,” Rose said. “And you know they want answers. Like what you’ve already told them. About dying. About running from Gallifrey because you were scared.”

“It’s more than just a trap, though. It’s a game. A game I can’t stop playing.” He sighed. “I told you about my work. I didn’t tell you I finished it.”

“You did.” 

“I didn’t.”

“You found room 12.”

“I did.” He said. “And like that first door, there was a wall on the other side. I can get the wall to move, I know how.” He ran a hand down his face. “There’s only one problem.”

“What’s that?” Rose asked.

“The stars. They’re all wrong. I swear… I’d say I traveled 7000 years into the future, but I know better. I know what time travel feels like.”

Rose looked at him sadly but said nothing.

“Did you know the Time Lords thought the Hybrid was meant to be Half Dalek, half Time Lord?”

“You know I didn’t,” Rose said. “Because before Missy said anything, I’d never heard of it. You never mentioned it.”

“It’s ridiculous, really. Nothing is half Dalek, Daleks would never allow such a thing.” He pushed off the console, moving slowly up the stairs to his wife. “They wondered what side such a creature would be on if it would bring peace or destruction.”

Rose studied him. “You know who or what the Hybrid is.”

He looked at her longingly, wishing desperately she was there. “Of course I do.”

She blinked. “You’re about to give up.”

He nodded slowly. “I think I am.”

“You’re remembering.”

“I am.” He nodded slowly. “I’m getting a taste of what it’s been like for you all this time. Every time you die, and you come back. Remembering it all. Except, I’ve been reliving this, over and over. The same thing all the time. No moving on.”

“But you're close, Doctor. So close.” Rose got up from her chair and stood before him, looping her arms around his neck. “You can do it, ——.” She said softly. “Get off that gorgeous arse of yours and win. I’ll be there on the other side, I promise.”

He pulled back to look at her. “I love you.” He said. “I don’t say it much in this body, I should do it more when I get back to you.”

“Get back to me first.” She teased.

~DW~

There was a shadow beyond the light, and Rose frowned at it. 

“What are you planning today?” She asked quietly, tilting her head as if she could examine it. “What’ve you in store for me.”

To her great surprise, the light surrounding her cell faded.

The cell had been on a platform, raised a few feet off the ground. The platform had been in a fairly large room with tall, wide windows that overlooked a city set against a dark red sky. The room itself seemed to be mostly gold in tone, walls, and ceilings. Which, of course, made the only other two beings in the room stand out.

Nardole fiddled with his hands nervously, glancing between Rose and-

“Hello, again, darling,” The Doctor said as he stood beside a panel, smiling at her in a fascinated way. His blue eyes sparkled with mirth, and his slight upturn of the lips made him appear a bit cheeky.

“You are not the Doctor I expected,” Rose smirked back, taking in the brown curls, the green frock coat, the blue ascot, and the mass amounts of brown.

“I never am,” He countered as Rose stood, brushing at the skirt of her dress. “You look gorgeous, by the way.”

“Why thank you,” Rose said with an affected voice as she walked to the edge of the platform. The Doctor reached up, taking her waist to help her down and not letting go once she was beside him. Rose put her hands on his shoulders, smoothing down his jacket. “Surprised you remember me.”

“To be honest, until I heard you in my mind, I didn’t.” The Doctor replied. “I tend to put up walls when I’m on Gallifrey, keeps the noise down, but you must have been shouting for me to have picked up on you.”

“Suppose I was.” Rose acknowledged, then frowned. “Haven’t encountered you yet, have you? Older, silver-haired, Scottish.”

“Oh, I got Scottish again?” The Doctor grumbled. 

“Yeah, ‘fraid so, love,” Rose smirked. “Take it that’s a no, then?”

“It’s a no,” the Doctor confirmed, glancing at Nardole. “I was coming into the Citadel for a different reason when I heard you. Then I managed to run into this fine chap. Asked if he knew of a Rose, and told me where to find you.”

“Thank you, Nardole,” Rose said sincerely and was surprised when the android blushed.

The Doctor got her attention again, first with a touch on her cheek, then running a hand down her neck. She shivered at the touch, placing her hand over top the Doctor’s to keep it there.

“Rose, you have no pulse.” He said worriedly.

“Not breathing, either.” She nodded. “’S like I’m frozen. Can I kiss you, would that be alright?”

“You’re asking permission?” He asked teasingly.

“You’re a Doctor from before me,” She reminded. “Don’t want timelines to go wonky.”

“A kiss -another kiss, really- won’t make a terrible difference.” He said gently, and Rose practically yanked him toward her with the grip she had on his shoulder.

It was very, very difficult to keep it appropriate. She missed her husband, of course, she did, but she hadn’t realized how much until she felt his cool touch against her skin. It was made worse by the feel of his lips on hers, of feeling a trickle of love come back through the bond to her even if she didn’t understand how he could love her without properly knowing her. She wanted to cry with the relief of it, of having him back even if it was the wrong him.

“Darling,” He said softly as he pulled back. “I’m here now. I’m here, and we’ll find you your proper Doctor. It’s alright,” He said as he pulled Rose into an embrace just as she gave a dry sob. She couldn’t even cry properly. She could shudder and clench her eyes closed. But she couldn’t make tears, she couldn’t expel her grief in breathless cries because she didn’t have any breath to give.

“Feels like I’ve been in there for centuries.” She explained after a moment. “Centuries of having you so far gone from me it’s like our bond could snap.

The Doctor petted her hair a moment as Rose felt him shift toward the panel, bringing her along.

“Oh, those….” He seethed quietly. “No, they wouldn’t. They _couldn’t’ve._ ”

“What?” Rose questioned, lifting her head off his shoulder and looking to the panel. She shook her head. “Can’t read Gallifreyan well. ‘S one of the one things my brain won’t let me figure outright. What’s it say.”

The Doctor’s jaw clenched and unclenched, and he glanced darkly in Nardole’s direction.

“I didn’t have a say in it.” He told the Doctor, hands up in a placating gesture. 

“No, you didn’t.” The Doctor agreed. “And if you had, you’d have likely not brought me here.” 

“Doctor?” Rose asked again. 

He shifted his touch from her head to her back, stroking her spine. 

“They used technology on the cell that is meant to speed up time.” He explained, a quiet rage stirring in his soul that came through to Rose even without the bond being properly linked up. “It’s normally used on Time Lords they want to force a few regenerations out of. A form of punishment or torture to get what they want or need. Locking you in the cell was bad enough, but they came up with a particularly heinous addition: linking you to the torture chamber of your mate.”

“Right,” She said. “So you’re here, somewhere.”

“I am,” The Doctor gritted out. “Somewhere on Gallifrey, in a similar prison, maybe a worse one, depending on the Time Lord’s mood.” He took a breath, then met Rose’s gaze with saddened eyes. “You haven’t been in there for centuries, Rose. You’ve been in there far longer.”

“How long?” She asked, terrified to know but needing to.

He kissed her quickly, a peck, then whispered against her lips, “two billion years.”

~DW~

_“People always get it wrong with Time Lords. We take forever to die. Even if we’re too injured to regenerate, every cell in our bodies keeps trying. Dying properly can take days. That’s why we like to die among our own kind. They know not to bury us early. I’ll have to remember to tell our daughters, our granddaughter that. If I get out._

“When _I get out._

_“I think, in my current condition, after what the creature did -which I’m not sure I know what that was- it’ll take me about a day and a half to reach the top of the tower. I think if I’m lucky._

_“I have to do this, Rose. It’s the only way. I have to be strong._

_“I should have known from the very beginning. The portrait of you? The creature from my own nightmares? This place is my own, bespoke torture chamber intended for me only. All those skulls in the water… how could there be other prisoners in my hell? The answer, of course, is there never were any other prisoners. And the stars, they weren’t in the wrong place, and I haven’t time traveled._

_“I’ve just been here for a very, very long time._

_“Remember I told you every room resets? Logically, the teleporter should do the same. Teleporter. Fancy word, just like 3d printers, really, except they break down living matter and information, and transmit it. All you have to do is find some energy, and all you need for that is something to burn._

_“How long can I keep doing this, Rose? Burning the old me to make a new one? Is this all for nothing? Did you even live past the first time? It’s not regeneration, I’m dying. Over and over. I’m trying to get back to you. But each time I wonder… will you even be there when I finally get out?”_

The Doctor knew he’d killed himself and remade himself over and over. He knew that he figured it out over and over. Judging by how deep the tunnel in the azbantium was, he came to the conclusion of punching his way through it from the moment he discovered its existence in room 12, however long ago that was. It was the only room that clearly didn’t reset, for which he was thankful. Because he knew the creature had entered room 12, as it likely always had. But this time, he knew it wouldn’t touch him, that he wouldn’t die, then burn himself to make a new one, and he would get home.

“Hello again, no more confessions, sorry,” He said over his shoulder. “But I will tell you the truth. The Hybrid is a very dangerous secret. A very, very dangerous secret and it needs to be kept. So, I’m telling you nothing. Nothing at all. Instead, I’m going to do something far worse. I’m going to get out of here. I’m gonna find my wife. I’m going to make the Time Lords wish they never, ever broke the Time Lock for a second time, and I will make sure Gallifrey burns, as it should.” He punched at the wall, wondering how many times he broke his hand, had it heal, and break again, over and over to get this far. But he was nearly there, another six or seven punches to go. “But it might take me a bit, so I’m going to tell you a story. Brothers Grimm, lovely fellas. There’s a shepherd's boy who answers three questions of a king to become his son. He gives one answer, it goes something like this: There’s this mountain of pure diamond, it takes an hour to climb, and an hour to go around. Every hundred years, a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed. You think that’s a hell of a long time.”

He threw a punch, and the azbantium cracked, splintering, crumbling. The light, which had been a bright, glowing beacon behind the semi-transparent rick that had been four hundred times stronger than diamond, became blinding in intensity with nothing to shade it.

The Doctor turned, finding the creature had stopped just behind him, hands poised to touch and burn him one more time. He watched as it screeched, then evaporated in a flash, cogs, and gears clattering to the ground along with the robes the creature had been wearing.

“Personally,” The Doctor panted triumphantly, watching the last cog spin to a stop on the ground. “I think that’s one hell of a bird.”

He turned back to the light, finding it funny in a twisted sort of sense that he would escape hell by stepping into it. 

One step and he found himself in a dessert. There was a hut not far from where he was, he knew. The view in the distance of the great, glass dome against a red sky made his hearts ache and his blood boil. He couldn’t feel Rose, but that didn’t mean the worst. It might be that he was too far away from her, but he doubted it. It could mean that she was recovering as if he’d regenerated.

It could also very well mean she was dead.

He didn’t know.

The Doctor looked behind him in time to see the shade of a portal vanish, and his confession dial dropped to the ground, showing him the castle in the water he had just escaped from. He picked it up, watching it close and seal itself before clasping it with both hands.

Footsteps approached. A child, he wagered, and wasn’t surprised at all to turn and see a little boy looking up at him expectantly. 

The Doctor bent down and looked the child in the eye.

“Go to the city, find somebody important. Tell them, I’m back. Tell them, I know what they did, and I’m on my way. And if they ask you who I am, tell them, I came the long way round.”

He watched the child scamper off, running back toward the city to relay the message. Then, he looked to the dial in his hands. 

“You can probably still hear me. Which means you already know I’m back. You already know what I want. I’ve already won this war you’re stuck in. But if I have to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins to maintain the timeline, I will. And if I find out you killed Rose Tyler by trapping me in there for two billion years, I will take the absolute greatest pleasure in watching you all burn again.”


	2. Hell Bent

In the dark of the night, a curly, brown-haired Doctor led Rose and Nardole through the streets of the capital. A curfew had been mandated since the war began, though the reason behind it hadn’t been clear. 

“The war hasn’t hit Gallifrey yet.” The Doctor explained. “It’s taking place just outside it. There’s supposed to be shields around the planet, but I don’t know if it does much good.”

“’Gainst a Dalek? Would say, no.” Rose agreed. “Where we going, exactly?”

“My TARDIS.” He said, rounding another corner. “It’s not much farther.”

“Then what?” Rose asked. “You’re here, somewhere on this planet, trapped in a time prison without me.”

“We’ll see what we can do come morning.” The Doctor said as he turned her down an alley, his blue box standing out against all the reds and golds, barely muted by the shadows. “In the meantime, I need you out of the Citadel. If Rassilon or any others from the High Council realize you’re gone, they’ll start searching for you. And since I’m already here in a prison, they’ll probably assume you simply escaped. Or convinced Nardole to help you.”

At the mention of his name, Nardole made a bit of a squawking noise but said nothing.

The Doctor pulled out his TARDIS key from an inner pocket on his frock coat and waved Rose inside.

“Oh!” She breathed as she walked in. “Forgot what it looked like.”

“You never stepped in my TARDIS last we met.” The Doctor countered as Nardole came in.

Nardole’s brows were high and his eyes wide as he took in the gothic library aesthetic of the console room.

Rose smiled at him, then turned back to her not-quite husband. “Bit hard to explain.” She reasoned, turning to the console and giving it a stroke. “But you said outta the citadel, yeah? Where to?”

The Doctor came over and looked over her shoulder, reaching around her to set a couple of coordinates. He moved to another spot at the console, Nardole coming up and making a triangle, and the Doctor grinned.

“I can’t really remember the last time I had co-pilots.” He mused before they got the TARDIS ready for flight.

They barely moved, it seemed, before they landed. The rotor only did one bob, and there were only a few slow groans before the ship stopped.

And barely a second after that, there was a knock on the door before it opened.

“Grandfather?”

Rose whipped around, and she was sure if her heart had been moving it would have raced, or skipped, or done something. 

“Susan,” She said softly, but the Gallifreyan had heard her anyway, turning to look at Rose and frowning in confusion.

“I’m sorry, I don’t- have we met?” She asked politely.

Rose could only shake her head as a watery smile began to form. “No, but I always wanted to meet you.” 

“Susan, Rose is my wife in the future.” The Doctor explained kindly as he went to his bewildered granddaughter’s side. He looked back to Rose and asked, “what body was it, darling?”

“Met you in the ninth, married you in the tenth.” She explained, and the Doctor nodded.

“Why is she here, then? If _you_ haven’t married her, then…?”

“I’m here somewhere as well. It seems I’m imprisoned.” The Doctor replied, turning Susan toward the doors of the TARDIS. “Rose here was being held as well, but I’m not sure why.”

“They think she’s the Hybrid,” Nardole said helpfully, grinning at everyone. “They believe she’s what the Doctor will use to destroy Gallifrey.” He frowned. “They were hoping they could kill her off, but they tried everything they could think of, but short of blowing her up, they couldn’t do much. Did look promising in the beginning. Like maybe they just had to separate her and whatever Doctor she was with. Didn’t last though.”

The Doctor gawked, disgust as evident on his face as it was on Susan’s.

“How many of your regenerations did they use?” She asked Rose.

“Don’t regenerate me. Bit different.”

“She’s some race called Bad Wolf,” Nardole said proudly.

“It’s not any race I’ve heard of,” Susan commented dryly.

“It’s a very long story.” She said, glancing at the Doctor. “What’s the plan, exactly?”

“You stay here.” He said simply. “We’re in Arcadia, outside the capital. And, as I said, they won’t look for me because they would naturally assume I’m not here. I’m wherever they put me. When they start the hunt for you, they won’t think to come here for a while.”

Rose nodded, glancing out the windows of the small flat they were in, seeing the dome of the capital in the distance, two suns just peeking over the horizon. She walked to the window, staring out over the landscape, taking it all in.

“Told me about Gallifrey not long after we first met. Over an order of chips after we watched the end of planet Earth. Didn’t give it a name for some time, just told me all ‘bout it. ‘S more beautiful than you described.”

“I never showed you? Through our bond?” The Doctor asked, and Rose shook her head.

“Not properly. An’ all your memories… tainted, yeah? You want to remember the good but you don’t, not fully. Got to see this all once from a great distance, but it wasn’t….”

She felt the Doctor’s hands gently hold her arms, his head hovering beside hers. 

“Darling?” He whispered, and she shook her head.

“’S alright, just-” She stopped as suddenly she felt overcome with dizziness. Her head was fuzzy, her vision blurring, and she could feel her weight suddenly become too much for her body. A moment later, she blacked out.

~DW~

“What’s happening?” Susan asked in horror as Rose foamed at the mouth, her neck beginning to bleed, her fingers turned blue, and she suddenly started to look emaciated. 

The Doctor frowned as he cradled his will-be wife in his arms, feeling her pulse race then stop, race, then stop over and over.

“She was frozen.” He reasoned. “And the Time Lords tried to kill her over and over. It looks like she’s catching up.” He reasoned, hoped, didn’t know for sure but after remembering the Masun attacking Rose by accident, killing her in a roundabout way, and having her come back to him. If anyone was going to bounce back from multiple deaths, it would be her.

“I would say the Doctor’s free.” Nardole, the oddly pleasant android without an ounce of loyalty to the Time Lords, said cheerfully. When the Doctor blinked at him, he opened his mouth and nodded. “She was linked to him, you see. Was pretty easy to determine when you look at all the data we collected, did the math, etc. I don’t think those pompous blokes with the fancy collars noticed or believed it, but I did.”

“Connected?” Susan said, sounding curious and awestruck at once. “How is that possible?”

“I really don’t know,” The Doctor said as Rose jerked a moment in his arms before stilling again. And he wanted to, desperately. But he would have to wait to find out. Remembering that there was a waiting period before she came back, he scooped her up and brought her to the sofa, laying her out.

“What do we do?” Susan asked.

“We wait.” The Doctor sighed. “Might as well put the kettle on, might be a while.”

Just as Susan began to move, all the bells in the city started to ring. Looking up, the Doctor read the panic on Susan’s face. 

The shields were being breached. Arcadia was under attack.

~DW~

He could hear the bells all this way out, and vaguely, the Doctor knew what it meant. 

Memories being locked away were very lightly slipping out, and he knew that there was a him, somewhere, in Arcadia. He’d probably been visiting Susan, trying to convince her to back out of the fight, to conveniently go missing while out on a mission. 

He wondered if it worked. It never occurred to him in all his thousands of years after the war to go and see if she might have been convinced to flee.

He heard the door to the hut he was in open, and he turned away from the window he was looking at up in the loft.

“Why are they ringing all the bells?” He heard a voice he never thought he would hear again say, and for a moment the Doctor closed his eyes and basked in it. “What’s gone wrong this time? This war they’re fighting, it’s always something.” He opened his eyes, his hearts aching. “You, up there.” The voice called, and the Doctor glanced down, seeing her shadow come closer, nearly to a point where she could look up and see him. “You’re not supposed to be there! I’ve just put all that back, it’s for the boys if any of them ever want to come….”

She trailed off, and he smirked down at her as their eyes met. 

She looked different from the last time he’d seen her. Regenerated. Kicked off the High Council, or any council for that matter, he wagered. Back where she belonged, where she grew up in the drylands. 

The woman who raised him went through many emotions: disbelief, annoyance, and fear being the most prominent three.

“They’ll kill you.” She warned.

“They’ve already tried.” He replied as he climbed down the rickety stairs. “And… in some ways, I think they’re still trying.”

“Are you the reason behind the cloisters ringing?” She asked.

“I dunno.” He replied honestly. “But I do know Arcadia is beginning to fall. It could be that. It could be they know I’m out of the prison they put me in. Could be something my wife is up to.” He said that last bit with hope, knowing that as long as he couldn’t feel her, it could merely mean their bond was closed. Had to keep a positive outlook.

The woman who raised him scoffed. “Your wife would never have put a toe-”

“She hasn’t been my wife in centuries.” He scoffed back. “Nullified the contract back during my first exile. I remarried, you’d like this one. Bit of a firecracker.”

“Not a Time Lord, then?”

“Most certainly not.” The Doctor assured.

She looked at him for a long stretch of time, seeming to drink him in. “They say you’ll be the one who ends this all.”

“From where I’m standing, I already have. Four bodies ago.”

~DW~

“So, where is the Doctor? Where is he now?” 

A voice, crackled through static, unfamiliar, was the first thing Rose properly heard and understood as she came around. She could feel a hand clutching hers, familiar and different. 

She cracked open her eyes, everything blurry, but there were three figures not far from her: one in red, one in browns, one in green. The green was closest, and she had no doubt it was her yet-to-be husband.

“Back to the beginning, I should think.” Someone else said, a woman this time.

“What is she doing here?” The Doctor’s smooth voice asked.

“The Sisterhood of Karn was pulled into the time lock,” A woman -Susan- explained. “It’s how they can keep the Time Lords going after their regenerations are run low. A potion from them, an extra batch of regenerations….”

“Do they get a choice, the Time Lords?” The Doctor asked, and it looked as though Susan shook her head.

Rose blinked, trying to see clearer, and slowly finding herself able to.

“I want him brought back.” The man said, “I want him brought here and I demand to know where he sent the Hybrid.”

“Are you sure she didn’t just die?” Another unfamiliar man asked, and the Doctor scoffed.

“We’d have had her body.” The first man replied.

“In theory,” The Doctor said, and Rose lightly squeezed his hand. He instantly spun around to face her, lowering himself from whatever he was perched on to be eye level with her. “Welcome back, darling.”

She grinned briefly. “How long was I out tha’ time?” She asked, her voice sounding as raw as her throat felt.

“You were out nearly two hours this time.” The Doctor said, brushing her hair back from her brow.

She frowned. “Tha’s a long time, Doctor.” 

“Everything the Time Lords tried to do to you to kill you kicked in the moment your heart started. When I imagine my older self escaped his prison. It seemed every time your heart started up again, you would die another way.”

“Oh,” Rose said faintly. “Suppose that’ll do it. Consecutive deaths an’ all.” She slowly started to sit up, and the Doctor helped her. “So, where are ya? Do you know?”

“We’re guessing my childhood home in the drylands.” The Doctor explained. “As soon as you were out, I had Nardole here help me hack into the High Council chambers so we can have a listen.”

“How’d ya manage that?” Rose asked, looking to Nardole who, from what she could see, was very pleased with himself. 

“Was asked to spy on them by someone else. Already had the little listening devices put in there. Something from Earth, quite primitive but does the trick.”

“I suspect it was Romana, but Susan says they haven’t heard anything from her for a long time,” The Doctor added. Then, running his hand down her back, asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Achy all over. Starved, don’t think I’ve ever been this famished. Light headed.” She listed.

“I can get you a bite,” Susan said, getting up and moving to somewhere behind the sofa. She heard a creak of old, wooden doors, and Rose heard the pleased hum from the TARDIS.

After Susan left, the Doctor turned his attention to Rose. “I can’t stay.”

“Imagine you can’t.” She agreed.

“We’re in Arcadia. It’s supposed to be the safest place on Gallifrey. And right now, it’s under Dalek attack. The shields likely won’t last much longer, and I was in the Citadel for a reason.”

Understanding dawned on her. “I know what you’re after.” She said softly. 

He nodded. “And I imagine I also know what I’m doing here right now. If I sense myself or remember at all.” The Doctor sighed. “May I confess that I’m terrified?”

“Course you can.” She said, cupping his cheek a moment. “Makes you who you are. Not a coward, though. Want you to remember that, yeah?”

He nodded, then smirked. “May I have a kiss?”

“Oh, you’re asking now?” Rose countered, tongue in the corner of her grin. 

“Well, I’m not your proper Doctor.” He cheekily added, and Rose tugged at him with the hand she’d been cupping his face with.

Nardole made a little yelping noise, but neither the Doctor nor Rose paid him any mind.

At Susan’s returning, making her own startled noise, they did.

“So sorry,” She said, and Rose turned to see the woman blushing, barely keeping a grin down as she glanced at her grandfather repeatedly.

“It’s fine. I should be going anyway.” The Doctor said, kissing Rose’s forehead as he stood. He turned to Nardole. “Will you stay with her?”

“Can do, sir.” He replied with a grin and salute to the Doctor.

He grimaced. “Oh, don’t salute. I hate saluting.” As he gave a slight grin, he said, “Thank you. I’m not her Doctor, not yet, but I’m grateful you managed to find me.”

Nardole didn’t seem to know what to say to that, so after a few aborted attempts at replying he simply nodded.

Rose watched the Doctor as he went to Susan who was still hovering by his TARDIS, a basket of chips in her hand. The Doctor kissed her forehead, said a few hushed words to her, then went into his TARDIS.

A few moments later, the engines whirred, and the time ship disappeared.

“Been a very, very long time since I felt the rush of her leaving from the outside,” Rose commented as Susan came to join her on the sofa. “Least a thousand, I think.”

“You’re quite remarkable,” Susan said as she handed Rose the chips.

“So are you, from what your granddad told me. Left all this to study on Earth. Ended up back there, married a human, had a few sons. Then when you got the conscription you came back. Had a whole other life, you came back.”

“It’s my home,” Susan said simply. “I love Earth, I love my life there. But even without being a full Time Lord, I outlived my husband, I already outlived one son.” She looked around her flat. “I had thought we would win, too, of course. I faced the Daleks more than most here, and I was just so sure if Grandfather as one man could beat them, then certainly the whole planet could. I was so completely wrong.” Susan lamented as Rose began to eat. “I know what he’s doing, where he’s going. It’s prophesied, the visionary has seen it. The fall of Gallifrey will come at the end of the Time War, and only one man will come out victorious: a healer, who will fix the wrongs we did. No Gallifrey, no Skaro. Just him.”

Rose chewed and swallowed, unsettled. 

“It haunts him.” She said, hoping to whomever that this wasn’t about to bring down Reapers on top of everything else. “This decision he makes, what happened? Haunts him now, still. When I met ‘im it was just after all this. He was a right mess, but… he was still so big-hearted. Wanted to do everything, fix everything. He saw all the good there was in the universe, just not the good in ‘im.”

Susan looked Rose in the eye for a long moment. 

“He’s happy?” She asked.

Rose smirked. “Most days. Current regeneration’s a bit grumpy all the time, but overall? Yeah, he’s happy. You’ve an aunt. Well, two aunts, suppose. We sorta adopted a second. And you have a cousin. Lil girl, just born not long ago.”

Susan smiled, “And they’re…?”

“All not human,” Rose replied, deciding that the specifics of it all was a bit too much. “You could come with us, yeah? Me and my Doctor.”

Susan blanched. “I’m not sure I should. It would be… running away. From all this.”

“You know what’ll happen if you don’t?” She said cautiously.

Susan nodded solemnly. “I do.”

~DW~

The cloister bells could still be heard as the Doctor laid out on the bed in the loft that had once been his, stretching his mind and searching for the bond with Rose. It had been nearly two hours since he came out of the disc, and he hadn’t been able to feel her once.

There was a knock on the door, and he sat up, seeing the woman who raised him grinning, waving him down. 

He got up, throwing his discarded jacket over his shoulder, going down to see who was there to meet him where he’d drawn the line in the sand, the earlier welcoming party not at all who he wanted.

This time, however, he was nearly satisfied. 

The general of the army, Ohila, Rassilon himself, and the High Council as well as a dozen or so soldiers at their backs. The Doctor took them all in, but since he didn’t spot Rose, alive or otherwise, his satisfaction was lessened.

Then, on the edges of his mind, he felt it: his bond with Rose finally stirring. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, that was the faintest hint of his own mind just beyond that, closed off to everyone on the planet, but when touching the woman who would be his mate, the connection was made even if the walls weren’t lifted.

“We needed to know,” Rassilon said, getting the Doctor’s attention back on them. “You have information about the Hybrid. A danger to all of us. If you’d told us what you knew, you could’ve walked out of there.”

“Oh, was that all it took?” The Doctor replied sarcastically, gesturing about. “Well, since you lot think it’s my wife, allow me to extol her virtues.” He rolled his last R, staring at the collective with a barely-there grin before his whole expression turned dark. “Rose Tyler could destroy every single one of you without so much as breaking a sweat. And knowing what she does about you, your practices, all the underhanded things you’ve done during the war, let alone before? She’d actually enjoy it.”

No one said anything for a few seconds.

“Oh,” He smirked, looking at each in turn as they glanced at one another nervously. “You’re all afraid of the big, Bad Wolf.”

“Why do you both keep saying that?” The General asked, Rassilon looking at the man as though he’d said the absolute wrong thing. “Bad Wolf?” The General emphasized.

“Surprised you don’t know.” The Doctor countered.

“It’s never come up in any of the ancient texts,” Ohila supplied. “Nor seen by the Visionary.”

“You’re a long way from Karn.” The Doctor commented.

“I heard you were home,” Ohila smirked. “One so loves fireworks.”

Grinning, the Doctor nodded.

“Well you wouldn’t find anything on Bad Wolf anywhere,” he shrugged casually. “She created herself, she’d have known not to drop hints for you lot to sniff out.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rassilon said simply. “She’s gone.”

“Is she?” The Doctor asked, already feeling Rose’s mind growing stronger against his, his walls closed but she was there, just on the edge, waiting without pushing. Tired, sore, a myriad of other emotions, but most certainly alive.

“You won’t get her back,” Rassilon stated.

“Well, then, what motivation do I have to tell you lot anything?” He asked, throwing his hands out to the side.

Rassilon raised his hand, his gauntlet pointed at the Doctor. “How many regenerations do you have left?” He asked with a pleased grin.

Ohila made a noise, one the Doctor couldn’t determine, but rather thought it sounded like a snort. It was enough to make Rassilon pause.

“You know something, witch.” He stated unkindly.

“Infinitely more than you do, I assure you.” She quipped back.

“Doctor,” The General said, ceasing any further arguments and bringing the conversation back to the topic at hand. “The Hybrid is a threat to the people of this world. Why don’t you just tell us what we need to know?”

“If you’re hung up on it being Rose, she can’t be killed. But I’m guessing after two billion years, you know that. Or was she spared the prison?”

“She was not,” Ohila stated.

“Well then, two billion years. Bet she never aged, never changed. Kept coming back every time you killed her.” The Doctor said, pointedly not remembering all the times he’d died himself, over and over again in his own personal torture chamber. 

He looked up for a moment at the twin suns, remembering that it wasn’t just him and Rose they tortured, but Missy. He’d no doubt that after he left the Master behind to get sucked back into the Time Lock back in his tenth body that the Time Lords didn’t make the Master suffer for his betrayal.

The Doctor turned back to the gathering, noting the soldiers looking nervously over their shoulders back toward the capitol, probably beyond, where news of Arcadia was coming in through their headsets.

It suddenly hit with deep, all-consuming clarity exactly what all those legends meant.

“What do you know already?” He asked the general who was too focused on him to notice his people behind him shifting.

“The Hybrid is a legendary-”

“No. We hate that.”

The General tried again. “The Hybrid is a creature thought to be crossbred from two warrior races.”

“Which races?”

“The Daleks and the Time Lords were assumed.”

“That was your first mistake. Now, what do you think?”

The general shifted. “Human. And… we’re not sure.”

“Right, well, that doesn’t make for a very good Hybrid, then, does it? Human and unsure. I bet you did scans and tests, and everything while you had my wife locked up. And I’m willin’ to bet, it said one of two things: human, or bad wolf. And since those two words seem odd to you, I’m gonna guess it says human. So, again. Not a mix. Next theory.”

“Matrix prophecies say this creature will stand in the ruins of Gallifrey.” The President said in a haughty way as if he was speaking of himself. “It’ll unravel the web of time, and destroy a billion billion hearts to heal its own.”

The Doctor pursed his lips. “Well, she did become a goddess twice, mucked about with the timelines here and there. Is a bit of a heart destroy, leaves a trail of broken ones where we go. Horrendous flirt, that’s a flaw of hers.”

“You think this is funny?” Rassilon asked.

The Doctor chuckled mirthlessly. “A bit yeah. What color is it?”

“What?” The general asked as Ohila frowned.

“The hybrid, what color is it?”

The general frowned. “I don’t know.”

“See, I always saw her as pink and yellow, but that’s me. And prophecies, they never tell you anything useful, anyway, do they?”

“This is no time to play the fool.” Ohila snapped.

“Then stop playing one.” The Doctor said. “You want answers, simple answers, and I’m tellin’ you, it’s not what you think, not at all. It’s not simple, it’s never simple. The Hybrid is a combination of two things, or two people, or the same person times two.” 

~DW~

Chips finished and waste discarded, Rose was now able to walk about. She could see the sky overheard growing dark, but doubted very much it had anything to do with the position of the suns. 

“This is the end, isn’t it?” She said despite already knowing. 

“I believe it might be.” Susan agreed. 

Rose turned to her. “I gotta ask if you’d come with us.” She said. “He’d want you around. Jenny would love to meet you. You could return to Earth if you didn’t wanna travel with us.”

Susan didn’t say anything at first, nor give any indication if she heard Rose one way or another. Then she lifted her head and asked, “What happened to your family? Did they know you left?”

“Yeah,” Rose replied. “My mum had known the Doctor. She didn’t always like ‘im, but she knew him.” 

“You talk about her in the past.”

“Well, before I went into the cell, was a thousand years old.” Rose shrugged. “But… I lost my mum to another dimension long time ago.”

“Lost her to one?” Susan frowned. “But it should have been easy, grandfather could have just-”

Rose shook her head. “It’s what I’ve been tryin’ to tell you, Susan. Was no Time Lords left. Not just no Gallifrey, but no one from it, either.”

Susan nodded sadly. “I suppose… I knew that. It’s just, well, dimension-hopping is, not easy, but not unheard of. But I suppose with no one about…” She trailed off. Rose waited for her out. “Does he really- I mean, I know timelines can’t be changed. I know that. Not when it comes to this. Time can not and should not be rewritten, not when it comes to this. If Grandfather really, truly destroys the planet, and everything in the Time Lock, then it should remain so.” And then turning to Rose asked, “Shouldn’t it?”

Rose gave a grim smile. “I’ve mucked about with changing the past really early on. Thinkin’ I could save my dad, have him around while I was growin’ up. Did a lotta damage, stuff your grandfather couldn’t fix all on his own. Got put right in the end, but it taught me a lesson I never forgot. Big things need to stay big, yeah? I didn’t have my dad, so I should never have had him. Otherwise, mighta never met the Doctor to have stopped him from dying in the first place. We can only change little things. Like, you can’t save Pompeii from Vesuvius, but maybe you can save one family.”

Susan frowned, but nodded, probably wondering why Rose had chosen what she had for an example.

They sat quietly for a long time before Nardole made a noise, drawing their attention.

He looked thoughtful, and when he noticed the two women looking at him, he seemed bashful. 

“Was just thinking.” He said shyly with a shrug.

“Bout what?” Rose asked, frowning slightly.

“Well,” Nardole looked out the window. “Time Lords are a bunch of pompous pricks in big, funny hats and collars, no offense.”

“None taken,” Susan replied as Rose made a sound of agreement.

“But the others, the Gallifreyans… they're sorta innocent in all this, aren’t they? I mean, they live outside the dome, where it’s hot and dry, and farming for food is a nightmare, but they get on alright.” He reasoned, and Rose nodded along. “I mean, yeah, most Time Lords were Gallifreyans to start, they get to sorta… advance a level as it were. But something about them changes, yeah? I mean, your husband, he’s a good sort. Looked more weary than the others, wasn’t holding a weapon. Say the Doctor of war is unarmed, just never thought I’d see it. Anyway, point is the Gallifreyans are innocent.”

“Right,” Rose said, pursing her lips.

“So, why do they gotta go, too? I mean. If we moved ‘em somewhere else, they’d be outta the Time Lock, right?” Nardole reasoned.

“Yeah,” Rose said as Susan lit up in understanding. She looked to her step-granddaughter. “What is it?”

“I kept thinking I couldn’t imagine Grandfather killing everyone, even the children. I couldn’t. I know he’d do what he had to, a few million to save the Universe, it sounds horrible but not unreasonable. Not when you look at what the High Council, the President, everyone has become in this. So few of us still have compassion left. So few of us care about anything else besides winning the war.” Her eyes misted over, and she looked Rose right in the eye, “Did grandfather tell you the Time Lords took out entire races? Whole planets, because it was seen as a tactical advantage.”

Rose felt her own eyes prickle at the sheer grief in Susan’s, and she nodded. 

“The Time Lords even in the academy are being taught very differently than I was. About preservation of timelines, of the whole noninterference policy. It can all be ignored if Gallifrey becomes mightier for it.” She looked away. “I don’t want that to be the legacy of this planet.”

“So let's round up the non-Time Lords,” Nardole suggested as if it were painfully obvious. 

“Not that easy, though.” Rose pointed out.

“Why not? You have a TARDIS right over there.” He said, pointing at a wardrobe against the wall, which must have been behind the blue box TARDIS Rose had arrived in.

Susan’s eyes went wide. “Oh, that could work.” She said. “We could go back in time, go to the villages, there aren’t that many left.”

“And where will you take them?” Rose asked.

Susan shrugged, shaking her head. “I’m sure I’ll find somewhere. Somewhere far from Gallifrey, far from all this, where they can live peacefully.”

Rose took a deep breath. “Can’t mess with anything, can it? Long as the Doctor doesn’t know it’s happening, long as he thinks he’s really destroying the whole planet, whole everything in the Time Lock, it’ll be the same for him.”

“Alright,” Nardole said cheerfully. “Shall we get going, then? Probably want to get who we can rounded up before we take this one back to meet her husband, get them both off the planet before it goes bad.”

~DW~

“What do you mean?” The President asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed on the Doctor as he stood placidly in the dessert, his childhood home at his back, the cloister bells signaling the start of the end heard all the way out here.

He shrugged. “I mean, while you were out here, trying to find out what I know, probably hoped to see me an utter wreck after what happened to me in this,” He said, taking the confession dial out of his pocket and tossing it on the ground at his feet, free for everyone who might not have known what was done to him to get a good look. “Confession dials are meant to be sacred. A way for a Time Lord to face their demons and make peace before their mind is uploaded into the matrix. Not used as a torture chamber for the living. But I got out, eventually, and you were probably hoping I was near as mad as my friend. Don’t think I forgot what you did to Missy.”

“Who?” The President asked dismissively.

The Doctor scoffed. “You sent the Master out to find me and didn’t even see which form they regenerated into. Shows how much you care about your people, Mister President.” The Doctor said with derision. 

The President waved him off. “You said that the Hybrid could be one of two people. Your old friend thought it was that abomination you cart around.” 

“My wife?” The Doctor asked. “Right, well, Missy probably would have thought that.” He shrugged.

“So if it’s not your ‘wife’,” The President asked sarcastically, “then who is it?”

As the Doctor began to grin, the sound of grinding and wheezing filled the air, coming from behind him. He couldn’t have hoped for a better, more dramatic effect as he could see blue reflected in the armor and decoration of the Time Lords in front of him.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked the collective. “The Hybrid is me.”

~DW~

It took them two days to plan, find, and retrieve the Gallifreyans.

Susan’s TARDIS didn’t seem to have the same personality as the Doctor’s. This one was rather stoic, very quiet, not nearly as opinionated. Rose had to tell it very specifically what sort of rooms would be appropriate for their guests, and after quite a few attempts and a bit of headache, she gave up on perfect and took the acceptable space for what it was. 

She was tired, but then again, she supposed two billion years worth of deaths, followed by planning a way to help a bunch of refugees off a planet and into a TARDIS would do that. She hadn’t fully recovered from the onslaught of what the Time Lords did to her catching up, and her mind was helping her along with flying an unfamiliar TARDIS, as well as figuring the many possible places Susan could take them all after.

They were in the capitol because Susan had hoped that maybe a few of the Gallifreyans who served the Time Lords would join them. It had to wait, of course, until the day that the end began. The Fall of Arcadia, as Rose remembered it being called. 

She, Nardole, and Susan were bringing the few Gallifreyans who wanted to come with them back to Susan’s TARDIS when something brushed against Rose’s mind. Not the Doctor, but he was there, quiet on the edges, but the TARDIS. Their TARDIS.

“Go on,” Rose said to Susan and Nardole. “I’m closer to home than I thought.”

“Where are you going?” Nardole asked.

“My TARDIS. ‘S close by. If the Doctor’s not with her, then I can bring her to him,” She explained as she latched on to that hum in her mind, allowing it to lead her closer as she backed away from the others. “Gone on, then. You gotta plan, yeah? Better get it going. Don’t know how long we have.” She then turned and dashed for the TARDIS, her skirts fluttering around her legs as she went.

The Old Girl was hidden, not perfectly, but enough that someone would pass her by without much thought. Nestled between buildings, and blocked only by a bulletin of propaganda posters for the war effort, it was obvious she was meant to stay out of sight. Which, of course, gave Rose pause. 

Still, she went to the doors, snapping her fingers, grateful the TARDIS opened her doors despite very clearly not being part of Rose’s timeline.

She walked in, sensing that the Old Girl had been asked to be put in sleep mode, the Gothic library interior looking more like it had in the last of Rose’s dreamscape nightmare than it did not long before in reality.

“Where’d he go?” She asked the TARDIS and smirked when she got a grumbled hum before being shown the Doctor, the younger Doctor, hunched over the console and rubbing at his face.

 _“It’s what must be done.”_ The Doctor said in the TARDIS’s replay of earlier. “ _Even if there are no futures left for us, for the others, it’s what must be done. Arcadia is falling, and it won’t be long before it will fall. There can be no more of this. I’ve seen too much damage already. If this were to go on?”_ He caressed the console. “ _I love you, you wonderful Old Girl. Thank you for all those times we ran together. For letting me steal you and run away with you in the first place. But this is something I must do alone._ ”

“He put you in sleep mode after that, didn’t he?” Rose asked, running her hand up and down the center column in a soothing gesture. When the TARDIS agreed, she sighed. “You get out of it all, though, yeah? Otherwise, you wouldn’t come to me.”

The lights came on brighter, and Rose frowned, glancing around the console room.

“You letting _me_ steal you now, that it?” She asked, and Rose got the mental image of her current Doctor out in the desert, surrounded by what she would guess were other Time Lords. “Ah, ‘s a rescue mission. Right, let’s get on with it then, shall we?” Rose asked, moving about the TARDIS and flicking the controls, pushing buttons, gearing up for flight. “Gonna have to help with the coordinates. Not familiar with this neck of the universe.” She teased and heard the coordinates shifting on the next panel over. “Brilliant!” Rose said. “Alright, Allons-y, Geronimo!” She cried before flipping the switch and holding on, laughing at the feel of escaping in a TARDIS that wasn’t properly hers yet, and doing it solo.

For a brief moment, the TARDIS shared the image of the Doctor with Susan, doing his damnedest to hide a similar smile, lest he be considered anything less than a proper Time Lord.

~DW~

The TARDIS fully materialized, and while the Doctor fully expected his younger self to step out, he wasn’t at all disappointed by the sight that did.

“Phew,” Rose said as she took her first step out of the TARDIS, closing the door firmly behind her. “Bloody hell, ‘s hot out here. Hello, love. See I’m late to the party.” She said, brushing her hair away from her face as she went to stand at his side. 

“No, I’d say you’re just in time, love. You look lovely, new dress?” He asked, looking her over, both loving and hating the red and gold on her at the moment. He sent her an image, his memory of their wedding, and added, “ _Liked this red and gold better, but that’ll do.”_

 _“Not the time_ ,” She teased back through the bond while keeping a straight face. 

Rose’s hand fell in his, and she turned to face the Time Lords.

He watched her, noting the steal in her eyes, the straightening of her back. The way she looked each of them over as if sizing them up, seeing who was the weakest. Stalking her prey.

“So what we all talkin’ about then?” She asked when no one spoke, all of them simply looking at her wearily, uneasy. 

“They thought they were asking about you. They think you’re the Hybrid.” He explained.

“’M not?” She asked, but he felt that she already knew that much. 

“No. That would be me.” He countered with a smug smirk.

She rolled her eyes. “Not likely. You’re one man, yeah? Always been what you are.”

“Can you explain what is going on?” The President demanded. “How did she escape?”

“Right, yeah, that. See, my husband got me out.” Rose replied. “At least, the man who _will_ be my husband.”

“Bloody hell, was it that him again?” The Doctor asked, and when Rose grinned he rolled his eyes. “Figures. Can never be the one with the ridiculous coat or the outrageously long scarf, can it? No ‘s gotta be the dashing one who likes to snog everyone.”

“A previous regeneration?” The General asked.

“Yes!” The Doctor said, pointing at the general. “Right now, he’s here, off to do exactly what you all tried to prevent happening with us. The Hybrid is not a weapon, it’s a decoy. And it’s not one person, it’s two. Maybe even three, really. Because while you were watching Rose, trying to destroy her, thinking she was my weapon to end the Time War, I escaped my prison. While you lot tried to figure out what I wanted, dragging your heels in coming out here, you left her unattended, and I snuck in and got her out. We’d met before, you see, that body and Rose. He knows her, even if he doesn’t remember, so he would go to her and get her out. And while you lot all finally came to talk to me, you left the Capitol.” He paused, the cloister bells heard in the distance for a few hearts beats. “You see, Arcadia has fallen, and we all know what the Visionary said about the Fall of Arcadia. And while you’re all out here, I’m in there, breaking in, getting the real weapon out. The one you all feared using.”

Rassilon paled, and the General lifted his eyebrows before turning back to his men and giving them a nod. They darted away, back to ships parked a short ways away, just out of sight.

“Lord President, we need a plan.” The General said. “You, the High Council, you should all return to the Citadel.”

Rassilon looked long and hard at the Doctor. “I should kill you anyway.”

“You can try,” Rose said calmly, something menacing laced in with it. “But you so much as lift a hand in his direction, I will burn through your regenerations if I don’t stop you mid-process the first go.”

Rassilon took a moment, sizing Rose up, probably wondering if she was bluffing. But in the end, he turned, and he and the others went toward a rock in the middle of the Dry Lands that was never there before and entered it via a door that it shouldn’t have. A moment later, they disappeared. 

And once they were alone, the Doctor tugged Rose roughly to him, holding her tightly, breathing in her scent, feeling her warmth.

“I missed you.” He said, feeling his chest swell and his hearts ache and soar with the love he had for her. He then started peppering kisses over every inch of the skin he could reach. Her neck, her cheek, her temple, all while murmuring. “It’s been so long. It’s been too long. I’m never letting you go again, never. I love you. I love you more than anything.”

And he felt her crying, her tears dampening his neck before she pulled back and kissed him deeply, running her fingers in his hair while still holding on to him with the same desperation he felt for her.

“Never again.” She swore. “Two billion years is a bit much.” 

“Agreed.” He said, kissing her again.

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand again and dashing for the TARDIS. “I don’t know how long I had to steal the Moment, and I can’t be here when it’s time. I was alone. Mostly.”

“Mostly?” Rose said as he pulled out his key and slid it into the lock, turning it and opening the doors the old way.

“Well,” he said as he ushered her in, closing the door. “What I didn’t tell you before was that the moment had a conscience. It’s meant to make the Time Lord wanting to use it to question what they’re doing, but the Moment knew what needed to be done.”

“A conscience?” Rose questioned as she moved with her husband to the console and helped him get them into the Vortex, out of the Time Lock. “What did it look like, exactly? A little cricket?”

The Doctor smiled slyly. “More like a Bad Wolf.” He said before flipping the switch and sending them off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be another small bit to wrap things up for this story posted probably within the next week.


	3. You Were There

They spent four days in the vortex, and nearly all of it sleeping. Exhaustion had taken them as soon their adrenaline had worn off, and the TARDIS quickly pulled their bedroom from the future to grant them familiarity while they slept. Both had passed out nearly as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Through the whole thing, some part of them touching. If one shifted, the other moved as well, until both were finally rested enough not to drift off anymore.

“What happened to you?” Rose asked, running a hand up and down the Doctor’s clothed chest, feeling the rhythm of both his hearts beneath her palm.

“I really don’t know,” He confessed. “I just know I woke in the TARDIS, even the regeneration is fuzzy.”

She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “We’ll have to get this one back, then, yeah?”

“Yes,” He agreed. “I’m hoping ours will still be in that graveyard where Missy was.”

Rose studied the side of his face as he looked at the ceiling, his thoughts all circling a dozen different things.

“You don’t blame her?” Rose concluded from one of those many, rotating thoughts.

“No, I don’t blame her for what she’d done. I told you what the Master was like back all those years ago, what he’d been like. What happened, what we learned. And by the way Missy spoke… I think she was probably put in her confession dial as well. I think she was tortured until she gave up whatever it was she knew about you, about us, and then was promised freedom if she did what they asked. I don’t blame her. Frankly, I don’t think she knew any better.”

Rose shifted her arm out from under her to play with the Doctor’s curls, fluffing them as she did. 

“I met Susan.” She said softly. 

“I know,” He grinned. “I remember.” 

“When did they unlock? Your memories?”

“After you returned to me.” He replied, turning to look at her. “I forgot all about you the moment I stepped in my TARDIS to get to the Capitol and steal the Moment. I wasn’t sure why I knew the timing was right, but I went for it.” He paused. “It was the most difficult decision I had ever made, pushing that button. Setting the Moment up in the first place. Deciding that it needed to be done. No one knew what it did, how it worked. No one understood what it meant that it had a conscience. All we knew is it would destroy everything. Whip out Time Lords and Daleks alike. I wouldn’t fix what went wrong, but it would stop it from getting worse.”

Rose frowned. “How’d you survive if it whips out everything?” She asked.

He blinked. “I don’t know. Eye of the storm, I guess?”

“And Missy? She’s still around.” Rose pointed out.

The Doctor pursed his lips. “My guess? As Arcadia fell, the Time Lords not on Gallifrey were called back. And I would imagine that those unfortunate ones out there that came home were just that: unfortunate.”

“Could there be others?” Rose asked.

“Rose,” he said gently.

“No, I know. Get it. Can’t feel ‘em up her.” She said, tapping his right temple. “But you can’t feel Missy. Can’t always feel Jen, or Livie. How do ya know there aren’t others.”

“I don’t.” He agreed. “But I imagine if there are, they are trying to live out the rest of their lives in peace. And I will grant them that. It was likely they might have been hiding from the war, and I don’t blame them.”

Rose let that subject drop, figuring it was probably for the best not to push the point. She thought of Susan, of those hundreds of thousands of Gallifreyans who chose to go with them. Who didn’t feel the need to stay on Gallifrey, who wanted to be away from the war.

“You did a good thing.” He said, reaching up and snatching her hand, kissing her knuckles. “Using Susan’s TARDIS? Offering a haven for the non-Time Lords who wanted one? The thought had occurred to me. I wanted to go back and see if I could save them before the Time Lock but I couldn’t.”

“Why not?” Rose asked.

He shrugged. “Couldn’t get back in it.”

She frowned. “We got those bracelet things.” She pointed out.

The Doctor frowned back. “Mine came off when I was transported.”

Rose tugged up the sleeve of her dress. “Mine didn’t.” She showed him. “Was wondering why they didn’t just hunt me down with it after younger you got me out.”

“I got out, that probably seemed scarier to them.” The Doctor teased, grinning wide and bright as Rose smacked him on the chest lightly. He stared at her, eyes seeming to take her in. “There was a painting of you.” He told her. “In the dial, a painting that had flaked to nearly nothing, just the shadows of hues from the paint that stained the canvas but I could see it was you. I talked to you, told you things, shared my thoughts.”

“Missed you, too,” Rose said softly. “I didn’t know where I was or what was happening. Not until Nardole told me some things.” She sighed. “Actually collected dust.”

“Thought you smelled a bit mote-y.” He grinned as she giggled. 

“Right. Shower.” Rose said, getting up and pulling him along with their still-joined hands. “Then we need to get our proper TARDIS and bring this one back to you.”

“Yes.” The Doctor agreed. “I’m sure I smell like a moat of a different variety.”

“Smell normal, actually,” Rose said as she tugged him with her into the bathroom. “Doesn’t mean you’re not coming with, though.”

~DW~

As they prepared to take off back to the last, known location of the TARDIS, the Doctor looked over the bracelet that Rose had worn. It would get her back in the Time Lock, he just wasn’t sure he wanted her in there. 

He knew it had to be only her, too. No telling what might happen if there were two of him there, what sort of consequences might occur. And what’s more, he was beginning to think that Bad Wolf didn’t just affect his ninth self and beyond. Rose had seen all that had is, was, and would be when she took on the heart of the TARDIS both times. She had to have seen what he did, what happened to him, and he had no doubt that she would be there. She would allow herself to be there for him, to pull him up or out of whatever wreckage he ended up in after he pushed the big red button. The fact that he distinctly recalled her looking something like she had at the Game Station meant it would have been put in place early on. And Bad Wolf? How many times had it come up? It might be what she is, but they were also the words that guided her to where she needed to be.

He heard her come into the console room, her needing to find a change of clothes so she wouldn’t need to wear the ones from Gallifrey anymore. The Doctor looked over his shoulder at his beautiful wife, hearts warming at the sight of her still whole and healthy, still there with him to give him a warm, loving smile in return. He didn’t want her to go. He didn’t want to leave her side for anything, not after what they’d gone through. But this, he knew, he had no choice in.

“Once we get back to our TARDIS, I want you to take this one back to me.” He said, taking the bracelet and connecting it to the TARDIS console. “This will get you past the Time Lock, and the Old Girl should be able to help you sort out the rest.” He said, feeling as much as hearing the affirmative hum from the Time Ship.

Rose shook her head. “You can come with me.”

“I can’t,” He said gently, reaching for her as soon as she was in reach, cupping her cheek and holding her waist. “Rose, love, I don’t want you out of my sight for anything. But we’re going to have to, eventually. Sure there will be times to come where we need to part ways. This is the first, and it will only be for a moment.”

She darted his eyes over his face. “You can’t be there.” She picked up on the thought. “And you think-”

“Yes.” He said, kissing her once, firmly and chaste, before turning to the console. “We get me back to our TARDIS, then you take this to me in the past.”

“Right,” Rose said. “And where or when will we meet up again?” She asked.

“Pick a spot and let me know.” He said, kissing her again quickly before turning around and facing the console.

Rose went opposite as she’d done for thousands of years, though now he supposed he could say billions. Together, they flew the TARDIS back to the graveyard they were in originally, and immediately felt the Old Girls utter discomfort at being so near herself.

“Seems she’s where we parked her.”

“Maybe Osgood asked them to keep it that way, yeah?” Rose said, her spike in nervousness coming through a bit in her voice as she walked with the Doctor to the doors.

“We owe her.” He said. “Anywhere in Time and Space.” 

“We’ll get her after all this. Got time, yeah?”

“All the time in the world,” he replied as he got to the doors, turning and kissing her quickly. “Don’t take too long.”

“Always on time.” Rose countered. “You’re the late one.”

“Watch the cheek.” He said, kissing her again. The Doctor hesitated at the doors, not wanting to go but knowing it had to be done. One last kiss, he forced himself out of the old, blue box.

It had been a couple of days since the incident of the Cybermen, he’d guess. No one was around, and there was tape on the entrance of the cemetery that looked like the work of UNIT. 

The TARDIS he left took off, the familiar sound soothing and heartbreaking, and he only hoped she wouldn’t be terribly long.

He was already starting to feel uneasy without her there.

It would be a long time before their parting ways even for a short time would feel alright again.

~DW~

She could feel the TARDIS’s pain as they broke past the Time Lock, the way she wept for all the loss.

It still hadn’t prepared Rose for what she’d see when she stepped out of the TARDIS, back on to Gallifreyan soil.

That beautiful domed city in the distance was in ruin. The dome itself shattered as all those tall, glorious structures were reduced to rubble, everything around it was smoking, the scent of heat and ash heavy in the air all this distance away. The red soil seemed darker somehow, the sky was well though the two suns still burned bright enough to be seen through the heaviness of it all. 

It was silent. A silence Rose hadn’t experienced in the same capacity since the Year That Never Was. It chilled her to the bone and made her want to turn back inside the TARDIS, but her need to protect the Doctor overwhelmed her.

She looked to her right, then her left, spotting the small hut that the Doctor had been standing in front of before. She had no doubt that’s where she would find the Doctor she was looking for now.

She moved, swiftly, still a bit too sore and too tired to run at the speed she’d have liked. When she pushed open the door, she found him, dirty, sweaty, with raw spots on his skin. She thought she could see the tell-tale glimmer of golden light beneath his skin, but wasn’t sure if it was his actual regeneration starting or just his body trying desperately to heal the damage that was done.

“He did the right thing,” She heard her own voice behind her, and swiftly turned around to see herself, much, _much_ younger near the other end of the barn. “I saw all that is, all that was, all that would be. And the Time Lords, if they were left alive, would have done far more harm than good. Even if they’d won the Time War, they’d have caused the non-existence of countless species. They were careless, heartless.”

Rose nodded. “I know.”

Her younger self smiled. “Suppose you do.”

It was then she saw the eyes glow gold a moment, and Rose understood what she was seeing.

“They did more, too.” Bad Wolf told her. “To him. To our Doctor. Long before the Time War, back before he ran away, long before he ever became a proper Time Lord. They did unspeakable things, but they can’t be undone.”

Rose didn’t know what to say or how to react, and a moment later, after a blink, the other her was gone.

She turned to the Doctor, then, going to his side, crouching down, brushing his matted, curly hair from his forehead.

He cracked open one blue eye. “You’re still here.”

“Never gonna leave you.” She said before she began trying to get him to his feet.

“Weren’t you in pink before? And a bit younger? Not much, mind you.” He asked as he struggled to get upright with her help.

“Wasn’t exactly the same me.” She explained as they got him upright.

“I understand what you mean,” He said, groaning as he slipped an arm over her shoulder. He huffed, leaning his head against her. “I did a terrible thing.”

“You did what needed to be done,” Rose said, beginning the slow shuffle to the door.

“I didn’t have to kill them all.” He gritted. “I could have saved a few.” He stopped, and Rose watched as his face fell. “I can’t hear them. Any of them.” He turned to look at her. “I can’t hear anyone in my mind.”

She quickly opened her bond wide, reaching up and holding the hand that was draped around her shoulder to provide him contact for the bond. She sent him love and assurance, carefully tucking away the memory of Susan and her refugees, making sure that the Doctor maintained the belief that everyone who ever lived on Gallifrey was gone except for him.

“I can hear you,” He marveled before he was wracked with pain.

Rose gritted her teeth against the shared sensation, hurrying him along as best she could.

They got there after a time and no sooner were they inside than he collapsed onto a provided cot. Rose sent them into the Vortex, figuring there was probably the safest way to ride out what was likely about to happen.

As it was, the Doctor was becoming distinctly more yellow, more glowy, and her heart ached for the loss of this man who she had known for so little time but loved as much as all the others.

“I can’t hear anyone anymore.” He said, scrunching his face. “No one but the TARDIS. It’s alright, though. At least I have you, Old Girl. We’ll see what we can do together, you and I. Just you and I.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the glow intensifying until it burst from him in that familiar blast that came with a regeneration like this. Rose shielded her eyes against it, stumbling back and bumping the console in the process. She felt something shift, and in a panic, pulled her arm away from her eyes to see what was happening.

The console looked very familiar and yet completely different from what it had a moment ago. She looked up and around and realized with sudden understanding that she changed the desktop. It was home and yet not, the one she knew he would have. She looked back to the Doctor as the light began to fade, revealing big ears and shorn hair, that Roman nose and a bigger body than his clothes allowed. 

Closing her eyes, Rose sought out the bond she shared with her husband, and while it felt distant it wasn’t as pulled taught as it had been when they were separated in their prisons. 

“ _Leather and big ears.”_ She told him. “ _Though the leather hasn’t happened yet.”_

 _“Put these coordinates into the TARDIS and meet me there.”_ He replied fondly, wistfully.

Without waiting, not knowing how long she had before this Doctor regained consciousness and unwilling to risk him needing to forget seeing her in the TARDIS, Rose sent the TARDIS to meet her proper Doctor.

When the ship landed, she looked around the console, not knowing if she would ever step foot in this version again. Then she went to the cot where the Doctor remained, lips slightly parted as he remained in a coma. She took him in as well, then with a sad sort of grin, went to him and kissed him on the forehead. “I’ll see you soon, my Doctor.” She whispered before going to the doors and stepping outside.

She stopped short as she looked around the alleyway where she’d first run off with the Doctor, where she would eventually marry him. She glanced around, noting the edge of a blue box around the corner, and darted after it. With a quick snap of her fingers, the door opened, and she zipped inside. 

Back among the familiar, cool hues of her TARDIS, Rose relaxed.

“Interesting place,” She commented to her husband as she came to stand beside him at the console. Resting her head against his arm, wrapping her own arms around it, she added, “Coulda saw myself, you know. Given where we were.”

“You frequented that alley a lot, did ya?” He asked her before sending the TARDIS back into the vortex. 

“Not the point, and you know it.” She said, closing her eyes and listening to the sounds of the engine, taking in the feel of his coolness through his clothes. “Did you remember anything?”

“No,” He said, gently removing his arm from her grasp so he could hold her to him instead. “I don’t remember anything after the button was pushed. Not until I woke up inside my TARDIS, me and her very different from before.”

Rose turned her head to press her ear to the space between his hearts.

After a few beats, he said, “We need a vacation.”

She chuckled. “Yeah? Where ya thinkin’? You say Barcelona-”

The Doctor threw his head back and laughed. “Not even gonna try. I was thinking as far as our bedroom. Maybe sleep another week, or just have the longest lie-in in history. Two billion years….” He trailed off, and Rose tilted her head, watching him. “I reset myself, over and over. Burning an old me, to create a new one. A part of me feels the length of it, makes me feel that much more ancient, the rest….”

“Know what you mean,” Rose said.

He met her gaze. “You amaze me,” He said seriously. “You always have, but even after all this time, it still sneaks up on me from time to time.”

“Not so bad yourself now an’ again.” She smirked. “Two billion years, kidnapped by your people, still here with you. Said I would never leave you.”

“That we did.” He said, kissing tenderly. “So, all of time and space. Where should we go?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the end for now. I *may* come back with a Bill era rewrite, but I make zero promises of if or when that may come up.  
> Thank you everyone who came back to the series and to those who discovered it for the first time after my more recent postings. As always, I appreciate all of you.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, but I promise not to make you wait too long


End file.
